1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for removing contamination from an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a method for removing contamination from an engine of an image forming apparatus in order to maintain optimum quality of printing.
2. Related Art
In general, a printer is an image formation device which receives data from a host computer and then forms a corresponding image onto a recordable medium such as a sheet of paper.
In a laser printer, print data such as document data or image data are received from external equipment such as a host computer or a personal computer to develop the print data into printable bit image data. The developed bit image data are stored into a print image buffer. Then, a laser beam corresponding to bit image data of one raster read out from the print image buffer is emitted from a laser diode to perform a main scanning operation, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum for every dot line. Thereafter, toner is attached to the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum and then transferred onto a recordable medium such as a sheet of paper. The toner on the recordable medium is heated by a fixing heater of a fixing device to fix the toner on the recordable medium, thereby completing a print process.
As stated above, a printer is generally coupled to a computer system in order to receive data from the computer system. Computer systems are information handling systems that are utilized by many individuals and businesses today. A computer system can be defined as a microcomputer that includes a central processing unit (CPU), a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, a display monitor, a keyboard, a mouse or other input device such as a trackball, a floppy diskette drive, a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) drive, a modem, a hard disk storage device, and a printer. Typically, a computer system""s main board, which is a printed circuit board known as a motherboard, is used to electrically connect these components together.
Typically, a laser printer includes a set of rollers able to feed the sheet of paper along a path while the toner is transferred onto the sheet of paper. Sometimes a paper jam occurs in the laser printer when the sheet of paper adheres improperly to a roller or when the sheet of paper is fed in an improper manner. After a paper jam occurs, the print operation must be halted or interrupted so that the jammed sheet of paper may be removed from the laser printer. Then the print operation may resume.
I have found that contaminants including excess toner can sometimes remain within the laser printer in inconvenient locations after the jammed sheet of paper has been removed from the laser printer. Because of these contaminants, an image formed on a subsequent sheet of paper fed into the laser printer can often be characterized by low quality.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above described problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for removing pollution material which remain on an engine of an image forming apparatus. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method for removing pollution material which remain on an engine of an image forming apparatus, in which when a paper is jammed during a printing operation, the other paper following the jammed paper is enforcedly supplied to the image forming apparatus after removing the jammed paper so that the pollution material such as toner is removed from the image forming apparatus in such a manner to fix the pollution material to the other paper without printing data on the other paper.
To accomplish the above objects of the present invention, there is provided a method for removing pollution material which remain on an engine of an image forming apparatus, comprising the steps of: checking whether a paper is jammed during the operation of printing; determining whether the jammed paper is removed from a printer when the paper is jammed; and removing the pollution material from an engine in such a manner to fix the pollution material on an other paper which is enforcedly supplied to the engine.
When the paper is jammed, an alarm may be generated until the jammed paper is removed from the printer. The method according to the present invention further comprises the step of determining whether or not a cleaning mode is set before the step of removing the pollution material which remain on the engine. After the step of removing the pollution material which remain on the engine is carried out, it is carried out to print data to be printed on the jammed paper on the other paper again. The other paper to follow the jammed paper and to be enforcedly supplied to the engine is a blank paper. An operation of fixing the pollution material on the other paper only is carried out without printing data on the other paper to be supplied to the engine.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a method comprising: determining whether a first recording medium is jammed in an image forming apparatus during a printing operation; when said first recording medium is jammed in said apparatus during said printing operation, determining whether said first recording medium is removed from said apparatus; and when said first recording medium is removed from said apparatus, supplying a second recording medium to said apparatus and transferring pollution material of said apparatus to said second recording medium and then ejecting said second recording medium from said apparatus.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a method comprising: receiving a first recording medium into an image forming apparatus; performing a first printing operation to form a first image onto said first recording medium; determining whether said first recording medium is jammed in said apparatus; when said first recording medium is jammed in said apparatus, determining whether said first recording medium is removed from said apparatus; when said first recording medium is removed from said apparatus, receiving a second recording medium into said apparatus, transferring pollution material of said apparatus to said second recording medium, and then ejecting said second medium and said pollution material from said apparatus; receiving a third recording medium into said apparatus; and performing a second printing operation to form said first image onto said third recording medium, and then ejecting said third recording medium.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a method comprising: determining whether a first recording medium is jammed in an image forming apparatus during a first printing operation; when said first recording medium is jammed in said apparatus during said first printing operation, determining whether said first recording medium is removed from said apparatus; when said first recording medium is removed from said apparatus, performing a pollution removal operation by supplying a second recording medium to said apparatus and transferring pollution material from a first location in said apparatus to said second recording medium and then removing said second medium and said pollution material from said apparatus; and said pollution material corresponding to a material remaining at said first location after the jammed first recording medium is removed from said apparatus, wherein said pollution material located at said first location will cause a degradation in a quality of a second printing operation unless said pollution material is removed from said first location prior to performing said second printing operation.
The present invention is more specifically described in the following paragraphs by reference to the drawings attached only by way of example. Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.